Thing Not To Be Today: old.

It's not a matter of how long you've been alive, they say, it's how you feel...

...and anyone who remembers the triple-gravity gum-eyed drag of being an awakening teenager with only double Geography to look forward to will understand this well.

Now there are, of course, plenty of sprightly oldsters who insist on running chirpy marathons when they should have long ago learned better, but for the rest of us: how do we stop getting old?

Three suggestions:

Be properly interested in other people (this involves listening!).

Keep an open mind.

Bear in mind the history of the word old, and do your best to live up to it.

There we are. 

Not quite eternal youth, but as close as most of us are going to get.


beautiful lady from Darap village, Sikkim. Photo: Sukanto Debnath.

Thing Not To Be Today: old. This word comes from the Old English eald and is related to the Latin altus, high.